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Nick Danger
Nick Danger Played by: Bill Vitals Birthdate: Birthplace: Height: 5' 11" Weight: 165 Hair: Black Eyes: Blue Background Professions *Private Investigator *Jazz musician - bass violin Travel and Social Societies *Spent some time with a traveling carnival as an undercover investigator *Member of Masons and Skull & Bones Skills *Forensics *Lock picking, pick pocketing, knife throwing, and sleight of hand (learned from the carnival) *Stealth *Climbing *Fencing *Boxing Traits and Quirks *"Second sight": Nick has an intuition about things. His first guess is often the right one. *The hair on the back of his neck stands up when danger lurks near, and so Nick is rarely caught off guard. *Very observant, he never misses a clue *Acute sense of hearing and good night vision *Lucky, the seventh son of a seventh son *Ambidextrous *Absolute sense of direction *Growing up around his family's whiskey distillery, Nick has a high alcohol tolerance *Only uses the telephone and telegraph when hand-delivered messages aren't an option *Easily sidetracked by a good pair of legs *Subtle as a brick *Dyslexic *Motion sickness *Light sleeper History Nick Danger, "Third Eye", action-packed private investigator, the seventh son of a seventh son, the man with second sight. His second sight saves his ass just in the nick of time but not always his customers and associates. He has a stony face that attracts about half the women to him like a very strong magnet and the other half are just as strongly repulsed. He smokes black cigarettes, and wears a black hat and trench coat--not that he prefers it, it's what customers expect. Nick never intended to be a P.I. In fact it wasn't even a passing thought. He wanted to be a modern Renaissance man. He excelled in most of his classes like chemistry, electronics, physics, psychology, and archaeology. He did well in history but poorly in English literature. During his senior year in college he became friends with a coed who had a very hot pair of legs. Her father was a semi-retired railroad mogul who disappeared while visiting his new hobby and plaything--his big top circus. After investigating and checking with some of his contacts he found that other circus owners and investors were dead or missing all over the world. With the help of other investors was hired by the circus manger to investigate in secret. While working at the circus he became friends with the gypsies and carnies who figured out rather quickly his real reason for being there. He learned carney talk, hand signals, and yedes from the jeeps. He learned knife throwing, lock picking, pick pocketing, sleight of hand from some of the best. Through the gypsies Nick learned of rumors of a mad French men trying to get control of all the worlds circus. If this is true, his flame's father may still be alive for he was 60% owner and killing him would not give control of the circus even if all other investers sold their interests to the French man. Nick acquired a reputation for not jumping to conclusions by not assuming the gypsies or carnies were involved in the disappearance like the police and authorities assumed they were, and take the time to see it through took three month to find the missing man. The gypsies owed him a big debt for getting two gypsies released from jail after finding the circus owner unharmed. The police were very reluctant to release the gypsies because they felt like gypsies are all thieves who must be guilty of something. It took a Nick a fair amount of persuasion and arm-twisting. Nick's second case involved the disappearance of three of the world's largest baby blue diamonds. All the other investigators were baffled and there were no real clues. The owner, Mrs. Elsie Wellington, and her daughter, heiress Tracy Wellington, delivered the diamonds. Tracy was carrying the diamonds in a glass-topped box. The guards escorted them to the secured display room in the heart of the museum. Once in the room the lights went out a few minutes later. The daughter screamed when the lights shortly returned. She was found passed out on the floor with the diamond case open and empty on the floor next to the fountain. No one could have left the secured room but the diamonds where not found in the room after numerous thorough searches including draining the fountain. They were not in the possession of anyone in the room. To top things off, due to the value of the diamonds, all entrances and exits were guarded at the time of the disappearance. Nick was brought into the case by the heiress daughter (another nice pair of legs) who'd heard about him in college. She hired him on behalf of her very distressed mother. Nick could not understand why he was brought into such a high profile case. After investigating thoroughly, all he found interesting was his gut feeling that the daughter is somehow involved and that the diamonds were willed to the museum, not to the daughter as most people assumed. Mrs. Elsie Wellington was sure no knew about this. On his third interview of Mrs. Elsie Wellington's family and household staff, the gardener told Nick about the murder of the handy man in his bedroom in the gardening shack next to the plant nursery four months ago. The handy man had worked for the Wellingtons for 11 months. Because his wallet was missing, the police listed the murder as a robbery by unknown perpetrators. The handy man was released from prison 3 years before after serving 25 years for counterfeiting. He was an engraver. Nick found this odd and thoroughly investigated the handy man. It turned out he was hired by Tracy's brother Fred, who had been tropical island-hopping trip ever since the robbery. Searching the handy man's room, Nick found the remains of a casting mold reject under floorboards between a big crack that looked vaguely like a big hollowed out diamond. In the nursery next to the handy man's shack, he found a vacuum thermos for storing liquid air as used in chemistry class. After a great deal of thought, Nick figured it out. The pieces fell together. The diamonds were never in the museum. What looked like diamonds were super cold blue ice in the shape of the missing diamonds. Tracy positioned herself near the fountain and waited for the lights to go out while the curator was explaining the security setup to her mother, at which point she tossed the ice diamonds into the fountain to vanish and screamed and pretended to be out cold. The brother Fred hired the handy man to make the molds. Once he was finished, he killed him. And he turned off the power grid switch at the right time and killed off the whole block, knowing he could not get near the museums power meter switch and make off with the real diamonds. Nick figured out why he was hired for this case. He was never intended to solve it. The brother got charged and sentenced for the murder of the handy man. And for the diamonds robbery they could not convict Tracey for accessory to the murder for lack of evidence but they got her for accessory to the robbery. Family history: Nick's grandfather was a Scottish prince and very high-ranking Mason and member of the Knights of Malta. He was also a member of one other secret society, about which he could only tell his only surviving son only its purpose and existence but not even its name. His grandmother, a feisty redhead, died giving birth to his father. His father Cedrick was a seventh son and member of the Masons who immigrated to the United States in the mid-1800s in the beginning of the depression in Scotland. A Mason associate informed Nick and he confirmed this with his father's contacts the impending confiscation of his and other neighbor's ancestral lands and properties by the Crown, so his father sold the land and structures to some British noble wannabe. His great- grandfather did not survive the crossing. His father set up near New Haven Connecticut in 1860 at the age of 25 after some traveling and promptly joined the local Masons. In late 1863 his Mason associates mentioned in passing that the Civil War would be ending around 11 months from now. He figured there would be a big demand for reconstruction after the destruction of war so it would be a smart investment in brick and cement factories and sawmills and, so as not to put all the eggs in one basket, a small whiskey distillery (a family hobby for generations). Unexpectedly, the distillery made the most money. His business did extremely well and Cedrick gave large sums to the Masons and in 1885 setup a trust fund with monthly payments and a ranch home for each of his five children. Cedrick died December 18, 1895 of consumption. Memorable Quotes "You could go topless." --to Mirella and Ling, after their complaints about the stifling heat of the Andean jungles Equipment He carries three throwing knives in his back collar, one 45-cal in an under-arm strap, a switchblade on his right calf, and a 32 snub-nosed pistol on his left calf. He keeps a lock picking set plus hidden mine set in his shoe, a steel climbing cable inside his belt, and also carries a collapsing mini spyglass.